Business to Business Interview: Joyce Bender, Bender Consulting Services, Inc.

Vicki Brooke: What are the major business reasons for hiring people with disabilities?

Joyce Bender: The major business reasons for hiring people with disabilities are these; 
number one, we are entering the 21st century where there is going to be a tremendous 
labor shortage over the next decade due to all the baby boomers that will be retiring.  
Approximately 70 million with only 30 million people coming in, so it makes good 
business sense that you need to look at an untapped labor pool of people that have been 
ignored.  In addition to that though, when you hire a person with a disability you get a 
person who comes with inherent traits that customers look for.  Businesses are always 
looking for people who are flexible, people who are tolerant, people who are patient, and 
people who think outside the box.   An example of this would be I have epilepsy and I 
had an accident and after that accident I could not drive a car for one year so between my 
husband and friends I had to think of how will I get to work, who will take me to work.  
So people with disabilities who are wheel chair users for example everyday of their life 
they have to figure out how they will get to that building, will it really be accessible, or if 
the person is deaf they will be thinking how am I going to communicate, will I be 
included.  People with disabilities, they already have these traits that corporations are 
looking for.  It is an advantage that comes with employing people with disabilities.

Vicki Brooke: What have been the major impacts on your business from hiring people 
with disabilities?

Joyce Bender: The impact on my business from hiring people with disabilities is very 
unique because at my company I as the founder have a disability but 90% of my 
employees are in fact people with severe disabilities.  We started in Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, we expanded across the United States and then we started a company in 
Canada.  And these people all work in competitive employment areas, not in areas that 
are inferior, finance, IT, engineering, competitive areas.  What has happened to this 
company is we were named employer of the year this past year by the epilepsy 
foundation and why I think that was so significant is it wasn’t about me, it was about my 
employees which just demonstrates to the business community that do not have people 
with disabilities at that level and we still won and the reason we won is because my 
employees perform at such a high level.

Vicki Brooke: What are some of the challenges you have faced in employing people with 
disabilities?

Joyce Bender: When I started this corporation the challenges I faced in employing people 
with disabilities were not my challenges because the whole purpose of the company, it is 
a for profit company, was to partner with organizations so that they would in fact employ 
people with disabilities but the challenges that I faced was dealing with those 
corporations.  The barrier that I faced was never that the restroom was accessible, that 
they did not have TTY, that they did not have JAWS software, the biggest barrier that I 
faced was an attitudinal barrier, that is the barrier that must come down.  The attitudinal 
barrier when they would meet with me to employ a person with a disability, or bringing 
aboard people with disabilities could mean that person would be inferior, that that person 
would not compete at the same level.  That is the barrier that has to change, the way 
people think about employing people with disabilities.  

Vicki Brooke: What do you think are good strategies in convincing frontline 
managers to hire and recruit people with disabilities?

Joyce Bender: When I meet with a new organization and I am trying to tell them why 
they should hire people with disabilities and their facing challenges with their first line 
management, first, I tell them remember this isn’t a charity.  This is a business solution, 
you are missing out on an untapped labor pool of people, on talent that your corporation 
wants to be competitive is missing out on but my suggestion to them is always education.  
Education is the key to opening the minds of people who are discriminating or have a 
poor attitude.  So I first suggest them to have disability awareness training or go to other 
corporations where they have success stories, bring in those executives to meet with your 
executives.  But then I also tell them, National Disability Awareness Mentoring Day is a 
day where high school students with disabilities and college students with disabilities are 
brought onsite for one day of job shadowing.  If you can even start there by bringing 
aboard those students with disabilities you are going to make a difference but the last 
thing I always tell organizations is when they say oh we are facing such a challenge in 
bringing aboard people with disabilities, we just don’t know how to face that I say 
remember this, you already have people with disabilities working here right now.  I have 
epilepsy but there are people working here that have diabetes, depression, epilepsy, or a 
circulatory disorder that are already your employees, it’s just that they haven’t wanted to 
admit that to you.  

Vicki Brooke: How do you retain your employees with disabilities?

Joyce Bender: When I started this company I was determined that I not only would not 
have a problem retaining people because I knew people with disabilities are so 
appreciative of having that first job.  You see when you hire a person with a disability 
you give them something they have never had before in this country, freedom.  Now they 
can get a car, they can rent an apartment, they can get a house, and they can do what 
everyone else does.  So people with disabilities are so appreciative of that first 
opportunity.  They get that opportunity, they are loyal, and they are dedicated.  You will 
not be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on retention.  I am a perfect example of 
that because we have had no problems in that area.  In addition to that, the people in 
management in my company, many of them are people with disabilities, we started a 
training program at our company that went over a year teaching entry level people how to 
move into leadership and management positions.  I must insist that when corporations 
hire people with disabilities that they remember that just like all people they don’t just 
want to be hired and put in employment, they want to contribute, they want to move up 
just like everyone else.

Vicki Brooke: How do you recruit people with disabilities?
Joyce Bender: There are over 13 million working age Americans with disabilities 
unemployed in this country and the way we recruit people with disabilities, we use many 
different avenues.  One, of course is our website where we advertise and try to attract 
many people with disabilities.  In addition to that we go to colleges and universities and 
technical schools across the United States and talk to the disability provider or counselor 
at that office to refer the people to us.  In addition, we work with the state vocational 
rehab providers in every state that we are located in, we work with non profit 
organizations from the epilepsy foundation to foundations that work with people who are 
blind, poor, or deaf.  But in addition to that we attend job fairs.  We make it very 
aggressive, when you are looking for people with disabilities you will be able to find 
them if you make an assertive effort to go out and recruit them.